Chicago Sports Review

Merry halfway to Christmas, Chicago. Meet your present – Derrick Rose.

In all likelihood this is the best present anyone has ever received for Jesus’ half birthday. He’s going to be a star – you can book it now. I could go further into that, but someone already has, and he’s probably done more research than me, so let’s move on.

Which is what the Bulls can now do – there’s a coach in place (say what you will about his qualifications) and a new franchise cornerstone in Rose, so it’s time to build a team around him. Which begins, naturally, with taking stock. As far as I can tell, the current team breaks down like this…

PG – Rose, Kirk Hinrich

SG – Larry Hughes, Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefolosha

SF – Luol Deng, Andres Nocioni

PF – Drew Gooden, Tyrus Thomas

C – Joakim Noah, Aaron Gray

Guys who will be lucky to make the roster and likely won’t leave the bench if they do – JamesOn Curry, Cedric Simmons, Demetris Nichols.

There are a couple things that jump out at me here. First, the perceived and oft-discussed “glut of guards” doesn’t entirely exist, particularly if you consider that Thabo is long enough and a solid enough defender to log some minutes at small forward.

Yes, there are four returning guards on this team, plus Rose, but I think they all bring different things to the table. Specifically…

Ben Gordon is a volume scorer, who is capable of tearing any team apart when he gets hot, regardless of the defender. Assists from Rose can only help in that department.

Kirk Hinrich is in many ways an intriguing combo guard. While he’s often criticized for not fitting either guard position particularly well – a legitimate criticism, I think – he certainly is not as bad as he played last year and there’s a good argument to be made that his versatility between the two guard spots offers welcome flexibility for a coach.

Thabo Sefolosha is already a very, very good defender at the 2; he’s got crazy long arms and a willingness to break down and guard people. He still got beat occasionally last year, but never for lack of trying. He can be a lockdown defender in this league.

Larry Hughes is a bit of an enigma, and often takes frustratingly bad shots, yes. However, he also is the only returning player who is both capable of and willing to drive to the hole on a regular basis. He is also untradable right now with his ridiculously inflated contract, so Bulls fans might as well get used to having him around.

All in all, a team is not at a disadvantage for having depth at the guard positions. What puts the Bulls at a disadvantage is the general lack of experience – and, let’s be honest, ability – at the power forward and center positions.

I’m on record as being a Drew Gooden fan, and I stand by that – but the trio of Thomas, Noah and Gray is troublesome. Together they have a total of four years of NBA service, and each has marked weaknesses. There is potential there, but this is where the Bulls need help.

That said, John Paxson has maintained that the first order of business is to resign the Bulls’ own restricted free agents, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng. And business time begins today, July 1, with the opening of the NBA’s free agency period.

For the uninitiated, restricted free agents have the option to sign an offer sheet – essentially a long-term contract offer – with any team around the league. If they do, the team that owns their rights has the option to match that offer and keep the player; or they choose not to match, letting the player go. If the player chooses not to sign an offer sheet, they can return for a one-year “qualifying offer” and become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this coming season.

For Gordon, that last option is the most likely. In a down market, with very few teams having available salary cap space, Gordon is not likely to find an offer that he feels is appropriate. That’s judging from the audacity he showed in turning down the Bulls’ reported five year, $50 million offer last offseason.

Unfortunately for the Bulls, this means there is little they can do with Gordon. And perhaps even more unfortunately, Deng – who is far more versatile and two years younger than Gordon – is far more likely to sign an offer sheet and force the Bulls to overpay him.

Working in the team’s favor is the fact that almost nobody around the league has the kind of salary cap space that would be necessary for that sort of deal. Outside of the Memphis Grizzlies, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers, there is essentially nobody who could afford the sort of contract Deng is believed to want; and both the Clippers and Sixers would likely have to let their own free agents (Elton Brand and Corey Maggette for the former; Andre Iguodala for the latter) walk out the door.

One would hope that Deng could be signed to a longer-term extension, but for now let’s assume he’s targeting unrestricted free agency in the Summer of ‘09. What, then, ought the Bulls do to shore up their frontcourt?

Solution 1: Elton Brand

Brand is undoubtedly the best player available on the open market, and his opt-out clause from the Clippers makes him an unrestricted free agent. In other words, if Brand can be convinced that Chicago would be a good place for him, there is nobody who can stop him from signing here.

And oooohhhh, would Chicago be a good place for him – much different than he remembers it, I’m sure. Instead of the likes of Corey Carr and Cory Benjamin, Brand would be teamed with a hot young point and a host of other talented youngsters.

The problem with this scenario is simple logistics. The Bulls have been unwilling to cross into the luxury tax threshold (i.e. exceed the salary cap), and they would likely have to do that in order to sign Brand.

Unless, somehow, they can get Ben Gordon out the door. Thanks to the NBA’s awesome rookie pay scale, Gordon (as the #3 pick in 2004) is set to earn basically $2 million more than Deng if they both sign their qualifying offers. If Gordon manages to score an offer sheet – from, say, Philly – and the Bulls let him go, that’s about $6.5 mil in extra cap space that they would have to work with, and might be enough to go after Brand. It would also clear up the logjam – perceived or actual – in the Bulls’ backcourt, and give Derrick Rose an established offensive and defensive force on the interior.

Solution 2: Nenad Krstic

Clearly a major dropoff from Solution 1, but such is life. Krstic, before knee injuries derailed his last two seasons, was considered a real up-and-comer at the center position, especially on the offensive end. With the almost entirely defensive contributions of Joakim Noah and (sometimes) Tyrus Thomas, the Bulls could use someone capable of scoring in the post with regularity, as Krstic appeared able to do before injuries struck.

As a restricted free agent, the current Net is not likely to be a signee for the Bulls, but is a potential sign-and-trade candidate. The Nets went big – really big, actually – in the first round of the NBA draft when they picked up Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson, presumably to be their starting center and power forward of the future (though Anderson could end up projecting more as a 3). Either way, it seems to mark the end of them valuing Krstic particularly highly, and that could be where the Bulls come in.

After unloading Jason Kidd last year and Richard Jefferson on draft day, the Nets essentially have three guards in their rotation – Vince Carter, who many expect to be the next Net to be traded away; Devin Harris, their prized point guard acquired in the Kidd deal; and Marcus Williams, a second-year point out of Connecticut that is expected to develop into a pretty good player. Throw in second-round pick Chris Douglas-Roberts if you like, but it’s not likely he’ll have much of an impact this season.

On the other hand, the Nets’ frontcourt is almost comically overcrowded – besides Anderson and Lopez, they have youngsters Sean Williams, Yi Jianlian, Josh Boone and DeSagana Diop, plus less young-sters Stromile Swift and Bostjan Nachbar. You may call some of those guys small forwards, and that’s fine, but the bottom line is I just listed eight players who are listed at 6′9″ or taller. The Bulls have basically three – Noah, Gray and Gooden.

There haven’t been any reports to this effect, but it sure looks to me like the Nets might want an experienced combo guard like Kirk Hinrich in exchange for a center they apparently no longer value. So I think that’s a possibility, and while it might not be an exciting one it could be a very practical one, particularly if Gordon and Deng both stick around for one-year contracts.

Solution 3: Absolutely nothing

Sadly, as a veteran observer and fan who has followed the NBA closely for a decade and been so on top of Paxson’s career as a GM that I should be paid for it, this strikes me as by far the most likely scenario. It might seem weird for the word “solution” to be the associated label for a summer of inactivity, but to a certain extent I think this is a reasonable action.

It will certainly be intriguing to see how the addition of Rose affects the rest of the team, as he is the first true point guard I can remember the Bulls acquiring since… well, ever. After watching the Jay Williamses and Jamal Crawfords of the world traipse through the United Center for unsatisfying stays, a point who actually wants to pass the ball is a novelty that Chicago is not entirely familiar with.

But it would certainly help the Bulls front office considerably in their evaluation of guys like Gordon and Deng. So often in the last two years the Bulls seemed to be a talented bunch of players running around like a chicken with its head cut off – no on-court leadership; and if the behavior of Noah and Thomas is any indication, little off-court leadership.

A year with Rose at the helm of the ship would give Paxson the chance to see who fits with his young franchise cornerstone and who needs to go, and there’s nothing to suggest that resigning guys like Gordon and Deng will be especially harder next summer as opposed to this one.

Plus, let’s be honest – even the acquisition of Elton Brand wouldn’t make the Bulls a championship contender this year. Rose, great as I think he will be, is only 19 years old and will not likely walk in and dominate the league from Day One. What he should do from Day One is help weed out the undesirables.

So, for instance, if Ben Gordon can’t get on board the Rose train, then Paxson knows he won’t try to resign him next season. And if the Bulls stand pat this summer, their committed payroll just about cuts itself in half for next season, giving Pax all the flexibility he could ever want to bring in anyone who is available from a group that could include Rasheed Wallace and Carlos Boozer, not to mention the long-coveted free agent class of 2010 that includes most of the legendary 2003 NBA Draft.

In other words, the easiest, most likely and least pressurized course of action – the sort of route Paxson has shown himself to be partial to in the past – involves signing nobody this offseason. He will almost certainly try to work something long term out with Deng, and to a lesser extent with Gordon, but I would caution Bulls fans not to hold their breath for the big splash, as it’s quite possible that an unrestricted second-tier center like Primoz Brezec could be as wet as the Bulls get.

But don’t despair. Not only would that action set the Bulls up for a potential run at bigger talents in the future, it will allow them to use 2008-09 as a development season – which means more Derrick Rose for your viewing pleasure, and likely less time wasted trying to get something out of veterans that have disappointed us in the past. Not to mention that with Rose in the fold, the team will probably not underachieve to the embarrassing degree that they did last year.

And, perhaps best of all, it means that without having to worry about an ill-advised big-money deal potentially handcuffing your favorite basketball team for years to come, you have all summer long to bask in the glory of your best Halfway to Christmas gift ever.

Happy Holidays.

1- He’s a scorer, averaging 15 points a game in his only season at the University of Memphis. That would have been third on the Bulls last season, but Rose’s 48% shooting from the field would have tied him with Luol Deng for the team lead.

2- He’s a passer, averaging five assists a game. Like any good player though, D-Rose stepped it up when his team needed it most, dropping nine assists in UM’s regional final win over Texas and eight in the national championship game versus Kansas.

3-He’s a defender, often times sticking the opposition’s most explosive player. People assume that because he hit the game-tying shot that Kansas guard Mario Chalmers had a great game in the final. But really he shot five for 13, had only two assists and three turnovers. And who was guarding him that night? Rose.

4-He gets to the free throw line, which is something that no other player on the Bulls roster can say with authority. In his one year of college he averaged five shots a game from the charity stripe, which would have placed him atop the Bulls stat sheet a year ago in that category.

5-He’s from Chicago, which automatically means he will be embraced by the United Center faithful and understands the pressure of playing basketball in this city.

6-He wants the ball with the clock running out and the game on the line, which is good, because it means then that Ben Gordon doesn’t have to have the ball with the clock running out and the game on the line.

7-He makes his teammates better, always a plus for a point guard. Add to that he is a combination of unselfish and determined to win, and Rose is the first Bulls player since MJ that demands his teammates respect.

8-He’s a true #1 guy, another thing the Bulls have lacked since MJ walked away in 1998. The Bulls may have been on national TV a lot the past few years, but I guarantee it wasn’t because ESPN and TNT wanted to highlight the play or Kirk Hinrich and Chris Duhon.

9-He’s a winner. In 2006, his Simeon Wolverines went 33-4 and won the state title. In ‘07, they went 33-2 and won it all again. And then this year, he led Memphis to a 38-2 record and was one free throw away from a national title. That puts his three-year mark at 104-8, two Illinois state championships and nearly an NCAA crown.

10-He’s got speed to burn, which will help the Bulls finally move into the modern NBA. No more Hinrich dribbling around the backcourt trying to set up Gordon for a fade-away with the shot clock running out or Duhon weaving under the basket hoping that Tyrus Thomas will be paying attention. The Bulls can now trust Rose to push the tempo and still have control of the game.

11-He likes the spotlight, which is good, because playing in Chicago he’ll be in it. I don’t know for certain, but I’m guessing that Memphis doesn’t have the media scrutiny towards its athletes that we here in the Windy City do.

12-He made this shot.

Do you know how difficult it is to bank in a shot from 20 feet away, falling backwards, with a hand in the face? Next time you are at the playground, just try it, even without the 6-10 defender jumping to swat the ball back at you or the pressure of a national title game on the line. Very impressive.

13-He’s the future of basketball. The NBA is starting to become a point guard dominated league, even if that was the weakest position on the floor for the world champion Celtics. Guys like Steve Nash, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams are proving how important floor generals are to a team success, and Rose is the next one in line in that mold.

14-He’s a student of the game, and has aspects of Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, and Tony Parker in his arsenal. How can that be a bad thing?

15-He’s got a star name: Derrick Rose. Kind of like Tom Brady in football and David Wright in baseball, there’s just something about a name that attracts the bright lights.

16-He’s got a star smile, which always helps, considering the average American thinks the NBA is full of tattoo-covered, foul mouthed thugs who don’t care about anything besides money. (Note to average America: This is not the case at all, please return to watching pro basketball.)

17- He elevates the status of the Chicago Public League, whose alums include Kevin Garnett (Farragut), Luther Head (Manley) and Quentin Richardson (Whitney Young).

18-He fills a need on the team, because Hinrich is not fit to be the starting point guard of an NBA team. I’m not sure if John Paxson will deal Capitan Kirk, let Gordon go in free agency, or finds some sorry GM that is willing to take Larry Hughes and his massive $13 million contract. Whatever happens, the fact that the Bulls have a new point guard means they are a better team.

19- He’s still three months away from his 20th birthday, meaning that it will be three or four seasons until D-Rose reaches his prime. And that means he’s going to keep getting better and better, which any Bulls fan should be ecstatic about.

20- He was by far the best player available in the draft. Michael Beasley will be a solid player, but as a 6-7 power forward he will never be a top-10 player in the league. O.J. Mayo is nice, but he lacks the explosiveness that Rose does. And Russell Westbrook will never be even half the player D-Rose will be. So really, there was no choice for Paxson.

21-He has played in big games, shown in reason number nine. But it’s an unusually rare quality in the NBA, and it can only help Rose if the Bulls make the playoffs. Players tend to get overwhelmed in their first ever game with something on the line, but considering that occurred for the newest Bull over four years ago, I’m guessing he is pretty comfortable right now.

22-He’s got maturity, something that previous Bulls first round picks Tyrus ‘only does the dunk contest for money’ Thomas and Joakim ‘marijuana and cognac’ Noah are greatly lacking.

23-He’s from Chicago. Oh, did I mention that already? Well then Derrick Rose probably understands why there are 23 items on this list then.

The Bulls lost a lot this season. They lost 49 of the 82 games they played. They lost two head coaches in the span of four months. And they lost a lot of respect by botching the chance to sign former Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni. Yet thanks to the NBA Draft Lottery that took place on last Tuesday, the Bulls season immediately became a success.

That’s because despite odds longer than Lake Shore Drive traffic in rush hour, the Bulls came away with the number one pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. The chance of that happening, 1.7 percent, is the second lowest of any team to ever win the lottery in the events 23-year history. Yet there was Steve Schanwald, the team’s executive VP of business operations, holding a giant card with the team logo on it, giving thumbs up to the camera and telling the national TV audience the best way to order season tickets.

But now comes the vital question for owner Jerry Reinsdorf, GM John Pasxon and a head coach still to be determined: Who do the Bulls take? Will it be Kansas State forward Michael Beasley, the scoring and rebounding machine that was a first-team All American last season? Or how about Memphis point guard Derrick Rose, the Windy City native who took his team to the brink of the National Championship? Perhaps a trade, maybe swapping the pick for Denver’s Carmelo Anthony or Dirk Nowitzki from Dallas.

The old school thinking is go with Beasley. He’s 6-9, a dominant low post scorer, a beast at getting rebounds, and fills a position of need for the team. Since the trade of Elton Brand at the 2001 draft, the team has been looking for a dominant player in the paint. Eddy Curry was that for a while, but due to laziness and a heart problem, he was traded. Tyrus Thomas was taken fourth in the draft in 2006, but with the exception of put-back dunks and ally-oops, he has no offensive game whatsoever. And there’s Drew Gooden, Joakim Noah and Aaron Gray, all of whom have impressive parts of their games, but none of them include putting the ball in the basket. Beasley, teamed with perimeter players Ben Gordon and Larry Hughes, would automatically be the inside-out presence the Bulls have lacked since the triangle offense days of the late ’90s, when Michael Jordan would post up a helpless defender and either shoot that smooth fade away or kick it out to a wide open Steve Kerr for a three-pointer.

Making a trade also has its benefits. After each team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs this year, both the Nuggets and Mavericks have been the focus of rumors about trades for their All-Star forwards. Anthony will be 24 when the next season begins, yet he already has five years of NBA experience. And teamed with Luol Deng, the Bulls would have a great one-two punch in the frontcourt. Nowitzki is a bit older, he’ll turn 30 this summer, but also has the added of experience of winning. The recipient of the 2007 NBA MVP award, Nowitzki has been to the NBA Finals before, putting his team on his back during the ‘06 playoffs. Each player would be the go-to scorer the Bulls have lacked and wouldn’t need the learning curve that a rookie would.

Both of those options, Beasley and a trade, are good. But only one is great. And that would be taking Derrick Rose. The alum of Simeon High School on the city’s south side, the one-year wonder at Memphis, the guy who would have been MVP of the Final Four if he could just make a free throw, Rose is the perfect player for the Bulls. Never mind that the team already has a point guard or the fact that drafting a hometown player causes great pressure (See: Curry, Eddy), selecting Rose is the biggest no-brainer Paxson will ever have as a GM. One peek at his numbers at Memphis should be enough. But then taking into account the current state of the NBA, and he essentially can already write out the card to hand David Stern on June 26.

The Memphis Tigers were a good team before Rose arrived on campus. They had been to consecutive Elite Eight’s and had won the Conference USA title two of the previous three seasons. But Rose put them over the top. His quickness and strength was nearly impossible for anybody to defend, proved in the NCAA Tournament, when he scored 27 points versus Michigan State on 10-for-16 shooting and then had 21 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds in the Elite Eight versus Texas. The Final Four was no different, as Rose averaged 22 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists against UCLA and Kansas. And let’s not forget he won back-to-back state titles while at Simeon, meaning he has played for a championship his last three seasons of competitive basketball.

Drafting Rose would mean one of two things. One, the Bulls trade either Gordon, Hughes or Kirk Hinrich, most likely for a post player. Or they would go with a three-guard lineup, teamed with Deng and either Gooden or Noah. Whatever Paxson has to do to make it work, I suggest he do it. Every intangible goes Rose’s way, from background (Beasley went to six high schools in five states in four years) to marketing (Rose wore #23 at Memphis and has a built-in fan base in Chicago). Add to the fact that the NBA these days is dominated by perimeter players and Rose looks to be the league’s next great point guard.

As little as ten years ago, the point guard’s job in the NBA was to call out the play, make the proper pass and play good defense. But then guys like Steve Nash, Baron Davis, Tony Parker, Deron Williams, and Chris Paul came along, and everything changed. Now point guards drive in the lane all day long, crossing over big men like they’re on the playground, and either laying it in or throwing a pass to an open shooter. These guards are their teams leading scorers and MVP candidates, and it’s almost like the passing brilliance of Magic Johnson was combined with the scoring abilities of Dr. J to create this new hybrid point guard. And Rose is on that level, impossible to defend with one guy thanks to shocking end-to-end speed and bruising strength. His shooting still needs work, and maybe a change in his diet would be helpful. (At Memphis, it was reported Rose’s daily lunch included Starbursts and Sour Punch Straws) But if the Bulls pass on him, they will be passing on the league’s next dynamic superstar.

The last point guard to be taken #1 overall was Allen Iverson by the 76ers in 1996. He was really the first of these hybrid points and has been a force in the league ever since his first day on the court. Derrick Rose has similar potential, but is bigger and stronger than AI is. Michael Beasley fits what the Bulls need more and a trade would give the team an instant impact. But Rose, the hometown guy, is the perfect player for the modern NBA. His arrival would produce success both immediately and in the long term. It’s a bit of a risk, but just look at the Bulls season: What do they have to lose?

When was the last time you went on YouTube and watched some old Michael Jordan highlights? Can you remember the smile on your face when John Paxson’s three beat the Suns in the 1993 Finals? Do you still consider Phil Jackson a Bull, or has his time with the Lakers adjusted your thinking?

It has been ten years since the Bulls last brought a world championship back to the city of Chicago. Ten years since the last rally in Grant Park, ten years since the last banner in the United Center rafters, ten years since the last champagne bath and confetti shower. Those great teams, the six NBA titles, the 72 regular season wins in one year, the two best all-around players of the ’90s (as well as the best coach and best rebounder), are now all a distant memory. The Bulls now are a joke, the leagues biggest disappointment and once again looking for a coach to replace Jackson.

Since the last championship in June of 1998, the Bulls have made the post-season only three times, advancing past the first round only once. Not a single Bull has played in the All-Star game since Jordan in ‘98. And once again, the most exciting day of the off-season for Bulls fans is the NBA Draft lottery. Ten years since the last title. I guess the old saying is true: Time flies when your team really stinks.

So who is at fault for this decade of deprivation? There are the players, the coaches, management, even the ownership. Or how about all of the above. It really has been a group effort in turning the Bulls from the greatest basketball team the planet had ever scene to nothing more than an after-thought.

It started in ‘98, after the Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz in the Finals to win their sixth and final title. Scottie Pippen said he would return to the team only if Jordan came back. Jordan said he would only return if Jackson came back. And Jackson said he would return only if he got a huge raise. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Jerry Krause didn’t like the sound of a raise, so they let Jackson go. That led to Pippen being traded to the Houston Rockets for a pile of scraps. (More accurately it was forward Roy Rogers, released before he ever played a game in a Bulls uniform, and a second round pick, which became center Jake Voskul. Yes, Jerry Krause is an idiot.) And Jordan made a big announcement, stating he was finally hanging up his Nike sneakers so he could spend time with his family and drive carpool. (Since then MJ has come back to basketball once, purchased parts of two NBA teams and most likely driven his kids to school zero times.)

So out went the most successful playoff coach in league history and two of the sports all-time greats and in came coach Tim Floyd, whose career highlights at the time included three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament’s second round at Iowa State. Other key players from the second three-peat also left, with forward Dennis Rodman going to the Lakers, center Luc Longley signing the Suns, and reserve guard Steve Kerr becoming a key contributor on two championship teams in San Antonio. The players who started the most games for the 1999 Bulls isn’t exactly a who’s who of NBA All-Stars: Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, Dickey Simpkins, Brent Barry and Mark Bryant. A year after going 62-20 and winning title number six, the Bulls went 13-37 in the lockout shortened ‘99 season.

The shinning light at the end of that disastrous season was that the Bulls got the top pick in the ‘99 draft. Filled with one of the deepest pools of talent of any of the drafts in recent memory - nine future All-Stars were picked in the class of ‘99 - the Bulls actually had two of the top 16 selections thanks to a trade with Phoenix. And in maybe the biggest shock in team history, Krause actually picked two of those nine future All-Stars. With the first pick in the draft, the Bulls selected Duke power forward Elton Brand and with pick 16, they acquired St. John’s small forward Ron Artest.

Brand and Artest each had solid seasons in ‘99-2000, with Brand even taking home co-Rookie of the Year Award. But the team struggled again, finishing 17-65. That led to two more lottery picks, as Krause took Iowa State forward Marcus Fizer and Michigan shooter Jamal Crawford in the summer of 2000. Floyd now had a strong, young nucleus to work with, as well as some nice veteran players in Ron Mercer and Brad Miller. But the ‘00-01 season was even worse than the year before, as the team ended the season 15-67.

For most organizations, three consecutive seasons where the team won less than a quarter of the games they played would signify that some sort of a change needs to be made at the top. Either the person picking the players, the general manager, should leave or the person in charge of motivating and teaching the players, the head coach, should be on the first train out of town. Apparently that’s not how Reinsdorf and the Bulls do it. Both Krause and Floyd kept their jobs in the summer of 2001. But some changes were made. Two years into the re-building process, the duo felt that it wasn’t going the right direction, so they traded the teams’ best player, Brand, in exchange for straight out of high school big man Tyson Chandler. Teamed with fellow prep-to-pro center Eddy Curry, the team now had no go-to players and two long-term projects.

Finally, 25 games into the ‘01-02 season, Tim Floyd was fired. I’m not sure if it was his career 49-190 record (winning percentage: 21%) or the fact that the Bulls never escaped the basement of the Central Division in his nearly three full seasons on the bench, but whatever it was, it ended the worst stretch of professional basketball the city has ever seen. Assistant Bill Berry was the interim coach for two games (0-2) before Krause hired former Bulls center Bill Cartwright to take over full time. If anybody could teach the two baby big men toughness, it would be the guy who dominated Patrick Ewing in the playoffs back-to-back seasons during the first three-peat.

That ‘01-02 season was also noteworthy for the big deal that Krause pulled at the trade deadline. The team was struggling again, on its way to 21-61 record and the number two pick in the draft. Apparently the GM felt the only thing the team was missing was a giant contract to fill up the salary cap, making it impossible to sign an elite free agent. So he traded the teams best defender, Artest, best post player, Miller, as well as Mercer to the Indiana Pacers for swingman Jalen Rose (and his $12 million/year contract) and reserves Travis Best, Kevin Ollie and Norm Richardson. Along with Duke point guard Jay Williams, who the Bulls took in the ‘02 draft, rebuilding plan number two now seemed ready to contend for a playoff spot.

Yet for some strange reason, the nucleus of Rose, Crawford, Curry, Chandler, Williams and free agent Donyell Marshall didn’t produce many wins. Even with Cartwright’s guidance, the team still played no defense and refused to share the ball. Seven guys on the ‘02-03 team (those six plus Fizer) averaged over nine points a game, but not one player averaged more than five assists. The team finished 30-52 and on April 7, 2003, Krause stepped down as the Bulls GM, citing health reasons. The man who had won Executive of the Year twice and was the brains behind the six title trophy’s walked away with most fans remembering how he alienated Jackson, Jordan and Pippen in ‘98 and failed to turn the Bulls back into contenders.

The man assigned to replace Krause was none other than John Paxson, another key member of the Bulls’ first three-peat; the team now had the championship center as coach and the point guard as general manager. Paxson’s first move would be a memorable one. The team went into the ‘03 off-season thinking that all they needed was a glue guy, a player who could do the little things to get wins. Then, a week before the draft, the team and its point guard were struck a big blow. Jay Williams, who had played decent in his rookie season but had shown flashes of brilliance, crashed his motorcycle into a street post. The crash severed a nerve in Williams’ leg, fractured his pelvis and tore up his knee. A week later, the team drafted Kansas point guard Kirk Hinrich, pretty much giving up any hope that Williams would recover.

With a rookie point guard running the show again, the Bulls struggled in ‘03-04. Cartwright was fired 14 games in, and after two contests under longtime assistant Pete Myers, Paxson hired Scott Skiles to be head coach. The GM also traded Rose to Toronto in December, and once again, thanks to a trade with the Suns, had two of the top seven picks in the ‘04 draft. With those picks, the team selected UConn shooting guard Ben Gordon and Duke small forward Luol Deng. The Gordon selection paved the way for Crawford’s trade out of town, as he was dealt to the Knicks.

Finally, with rebuilding plan number three underway, the Bulls finally had a group worthy of the playoffs. The team started ‘04-05 1-10, but finished strong with a record of 47-35, making the post-season for the first time since the glory days. Gordon won the NBA Sixth Man Award and even though the team lost in round one to Washington, the future was looking good. And even after Curry was traded to the Knicks in the summer of 2005 because of his refusal to take a heart exam, the team looked like contenders for the Eastern Conference Title. Another slow start hurt their playoff seeding, pitting them in round one against the Miami Heat, the team that would eventually go on to win the NBA Title. The Bulls put up a good fight but once again couldn’t get into the second round.

2006-07 was to be the year. Really. Paxson traded Chandler, and in his place signed Ben Wallace, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year. Gordon and Deng looked ready to break out from good players to stars and glue guys Andres Noccioni and PJ Brown did all the intangibles needed to win basketball games. The Bulls went 55-27, swept the Heat in round one of the playoffs, but fell short in the Eastern semi-finals, losing to Detroit four games to two.

Then everything fell apart…again. Predicted by some to make the Finals, the Bulls struggled all season to get easy shots, play team defense and beat bad teams. Skiles was fired in December, replaced by assistant Jim Boylan. The team did no better under him, even after Wallace was dealt at the trade deadline. Young players Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, both acquired in the Curry trade, flashed potential skills but never put it all together. And Hinrich, Deng, and Gordon all digressed back to average players. The day after the season ended, Boylan was given the pink slip.

That brings us to now. Ten years since the last title, the Bulls are looking for head coach number seven (Floyd, Berry, Cartwright, Myers, Skiles, Boylan and TBA). Rebuilding plan number three (Brand/Artest, Curry/Chandler/Williams, and Hinrich/Gordon/Deng) looks like another loser as fans wonder when the team will contend again. At least, when Bulls fans want to see good basketball, there’s still memories to rely on.

Welcome to the finale. In cased you missed the first four parts of CSR’s Bulls Season in Review, here they are: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Feb. 13 - At 20-31 the Bulls are still playing uninspired basketball, but they’re also still on the verge of being a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. Thabo Sefolosha and Chris Duhon are, temporarily, starting at guard for the Bulls and that has produced mixed results. And while Joakim Noah is starting to see more consistent playing time, Jim Boylan apparently doesn’t like Tyrus Thomas any more than Scott Skiles did.

Because it would be pointless to once again talk about the lack of any real rotation or how massively disappointing any number of players on this team have been, Charlie Danoff spent this week’s column on evaluating the Bulls less than two weeks before the trade deadline.

Now that all the pre-season dreams of contending for a conference title have long since been unmercifully crushed, I thought it’d be appropriate to do a re-evaluation of the Bulls current roster. I will look at each player, taking into account their age and salary and determine their current worth TODAY. I will forget what we though about them heading into the year, because that no longer matters. This column is not about who should be traded, or what rotation should be used, it’s about honestly ranking the assets the Bulls currently possess…

Asset Rank:

1 - Tyrus Thomas - Younger than Deng, extension not coming up, and while Deng has proved he cannot be the best, or second best player on a top team, Tyrus still has that chance.

2 - Luol Deng - Our best current player, hurt by contract status and injury woes.

3 - Joakim Noah - Like the two above, future is very unknown, but already proven he belongs in the NBA, and could one-day win the Defensive Player of the Year Award. I mean, Ben Wallace did … four times.

4 - Andres Nocioni - Above-average player, paid appropriately.

5 - Kirk Hinrich - Above-average player, paid inappropriately.

6 - Ben Gordon - Bulls’ best scorer, also hurt by uncertain contract status.

7 - Thabo Sefolosha - Gaining very, very quickly with each game.

8 - Joe Smith - Mr. Consistent, paid commensurate with what he brings to the court.

9 - Aaron Gray - Realistically could be an NBA starter. I mean, Mikki Moore and Mark Blount have started whole seasons for teams.

10 - Chris Duhon - Tough to put him this low, but below Gray because he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and Gray is only making the minimum.

11 - Adrian Griffin - It’s Adrian Griffin.

…

100 - Ben Wallace

I would argue that Deng will definitely be a better player than Thomas, but Danoff’s point about his potential is a good one. Still, anytime your top three assets are Deng, Thomas and Joakim Noah, you know you’re in for a rough year.

Feb. 16 - Even though there was still almost a week left until the NBA trade deadline, two future Hall of Famers - Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Kidd - and two All-Stars - Shawn Marion and Pau Gasol - had already been traded.

In Chicago no moves had been made though. There were rumors of Ben Wallace going to New York (why??!?), but that’s not where I thought Big Ben should go:

The Spurs don’t have anything to give the Bulls except for expiring contracts, but the Bulls shouldn’t mind. At this point, Wallace is doing nothing but hurting the development of Noah and Thomas. He’s not the veteran leader the team sorely lacks and even if he was still a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, the Bulls aren’t winning anything this year. It would also allow the Bulls to be a player in a free agent market this year that will include a plethora of stars.

Brent Barry, Francisco Elson and Jacque Vaughn account for almost $10 million in expiring contracts, and the Spurs wouldn’t miss any of them. Add Robert Horry’s $3.6 million expiring contract and you have a deal.

The Spurs need another big man, they admitted as much when they started Barry at power forward earlier this year. The 37-year-old Horry is no longer a consistent option at power forward, and Greg Popovich doesn’t seem to trust either Fabricio Oberto or Francisco Elson at the center position. Matt Bonner may be okay for 15 minutes a game, but nothing more.

The Spurs instead traded for Kurt Thomas. I’m still convinced that even at his diminished skill level Wallace would have been a perfect fit for this year’s Spurs. He doesn’t have to be a leader, something he struggled with in Chicago, and he’s still an above-average help defender and would work perfectly (defensively) with Tim Duncan. But as I also alluded to, the Spurs haven’t gotten where they are by taking on contracts like Wallace’s.

But don’t worry about the Bulls, as it turns out they had found another taker for Big Ben’s contra….. urr, services.

Feb. 21 - The final trade of a wild trade deadline period was the biggest. The Bulls said goodbye to Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Adrian Griffin and a second-round draft pick in an 11-player trade, getting Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden in return. There was once again hope in Chicago.

Feb. 25 - In his column this week, Charlie Danoff decided to take a look at the newest Bulls - Hughes, Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown:

Thursday’s deadline three-way trade by John Paxson may well go down one day as the move that saved his legacy as GM of the Chicago Bulls.

Doing the impossible and trading what is easily one of the NBA’s worst current contracts allows Paxson to finally move on from the most egregious error of his tenure.

As many have said, losing Wallace is addition by subtraction, and so long as the Bulls didn’t get Vin Baker back in a trade for him they would instantly become a better team as soon as he left.

Well, I for one thought the Bulls would be a lot better. But the team boasted a .396 winning percentage with Wallace (21-32) and a .414 winning percentage without him (12-17). Just enough to half-heartedly stay in the playoff race without really threatening.

March 6 - In hindsight, Wallace might have been unfairly blamed for the Bulls season. Sure, he was a disaster, but so was the rest of the team. When he did leave, just about everyone thought Chicago would turn into the 49-win team from a year ago, including Charlie Danoff:

Looking over the schedule as a whole then, I predict the Bulls will win seven of their easy games, six of the 50/50 ones (including a sweep of the Cavs) and three of the games they should lose. That means a 16-6 record over their last 22.

Leaving their regular season record at 40-42.

Given they’ve only managed to win 24 out of their first 60 games, you could say I’m letting my heart get in the way of my head, and you’d have a point.

Yet, being as objective as I can possibly be, I really feel the Bulls are a much better team than when they started 2-11. Hughes and Gooden are an upgrade over Wallace and Smith, plus Hinrich, Gordon and Deng are all playing light years ahead of where they were then. Thabo and Joakim have also emerged as consistent above-average players since then.

The Bulls had other plans, though, and they finished the year a pitiful 9-13. It’s important to point out the Charlie’s viewpoint was pretty common in Chicago, even after struggling all year long most fans thought they would eventually snap out of it. They just never did.

March 10 - If you’re going to look for someone to blame for this year’s 33-49 team, you really can’t go wrong with anyone. One of the bigger problems was Tyrus Thomas failing to develop into any thing more than a wildly inconsistent, immature youngster. It is important to have perspective, though:

Yes, he is immature and far too sensitive, but how many young people aren’t? With time and a little faith from the Bulls brass Tyrus will grow out of these character faults and evolve into the player Paxson thought he could become when he drafted him.Whether it is in a Bulls uniform or not, by the end of his career, no one will think the Bulls lost on that draft day deal.

Then again, he could go down as a draft day flop similar to fellow LSU alum, Stromile Swift. It depends on which Tyrus he chooses to be, the one who skips practices, or the one who worked his way up from nothing to college stardom.

The potential is there, but as Thomas himself said shortly after the draft:

“You have to maximize your skills and ability. Potential is just a smokescreen. You have to prove you’re real in order to earn all the praise.”

To finish in truly unoriginal fashion, I will end with a cliche. Mr. Thomas, you have shown you can talk the talk… now, can you walk the walk?

Thomas had a decent April, averaging 28 minutes, 12.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.56 blocks per game. Unfortunately in today’s NBA, next year looks like it may be the last chance Thomas will have to prove he can be a star - at least in a Bulls uniform.

Easy there, before diving into this one don’t forget about Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of CSR’s Bulls Season In Review.

Jan. 15 - A 102-88 loss tonight to Orlando will drop the Bulls to 14-22, but still not out of the playoffs. The team is a very average 5-6 since Jim Boylan took over, so really nothing has changed.

And you know what that means, another plea for a lineup change here at CSR:

As this season painfully drags on, one has to hope against hope Boylan will see the light and play his talented trio of young big men more. They are really the team’s best hope for future success. Playing Smith and Wallace extended minutes may earn the team a trip to the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed, but is a first round exit really what this team needs? The only explanation that makes sense for playing these old dudes so much is that Paxson is trying to market them for trades. If that is the case it is acceptable. Just get a move on Pax. Start the fire, otherwise all your young plants may die before they even get the chance to bloom.

If only the Bulls could get rid of Wallace and Smith in one trade…

Jan. 21 - An inexplicable loss to the Memphis Grizzlies puts the Bulls at 16-24. Despite all the hoopla about Boylan being the opposite of Scott Skiles, Chicago doesn’t look like that different of a team. They still have a wildly inconsistent rotation to go with their wildly inconsistent play.

Charlie Danoff has another fix for the Bulls, this time a call for the running of the Bulls:

While a switch of philosophies would not necessarily improve their defense, it would vastly improve their poor offense. Even if this current group of players will never be the Phoenix Suns, they are definitely capable of better offensive output than they have shown so far this year.

At the end of the day, in spite of everything that has gone wrong this season, the team still has hope. Currently, the Bulls remain only a game-and-a-half out of playoff position. There really is no reason they can’t work their way into the top six in the East, maybe even up to number five. If the Bulls are going to make a playoff run, however, it has to start with some on-court running.

The Bulls would have a couple of offensive outbursts over the rest of the season, most notably a 135-point outing Feb. 22 against the Nuggets and the ridiculous 151-point outburst April 14 against the Bucks.

Jan. 26 - Lost in a team fully of disappointments was the development - or lack thereof - by second-year guard Thabo Sefolosha. Sefolosha appears to be the perfect fit for the Bulls, a big two-guard that can defend the guys Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon can’t. He can even provide some offense, though it seems apparent he will never be a good offensive player in the NBA.

Up until this point, Thabo wasn’t playing much at all under Skiles and though he had seen a boost in minutes with Boylan as coach, he still hadn’t cracked the started lineup consistently. We hoped that would change:

It is time for Sefolosha to replace Paxson’s favorite mistake, Kirk Hinrich, in the starting lineup. He turns the point guard position, which has been a matchup weakness for the Bulls, into a chance to use matchups in the team’s favor. If nothing else, perhaps moving Kirk to the bench can motivate him the same way it did Gordon.

Don’t be a fool and ignore destiny, John. There are powers at work here you couldn’t even begin to understand.

Thabo played decent when he got the chance. In February, he averaged 31.6 minutes, 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. In 22 starts this season, he averaged 11.9 points and 5.7 rebounds a game. Not spectacular numbers, but not bad for a 23-year-old.

Feb. 6 - I’m open about my love for the Phoenix Suns. Part of the beauty of living in Chicago, is that no matter how bad it’s going for Phoenix it’s always looking worse for the Bulls.

After the Suns traded All-Star Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for Shaquille O’Neal, I was on suicide watch. Of course, at least my team was making moves:

As good as Paxson has been at drafting, he’s shown no ability to take the Bulls to the next level through free agency or trades. His biggest signings have been bringing Scottie Pippen back to town (which failed miserably) and over-paying Ben Wallace. In four-plus years he’s traded away Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry for players that are no longer with the team. His only positive trade was stealing Luol Deng on draft day from my Phoenix Suns because our owner didn’t want to pay the luxury tax.

Now the trade deadline is two weeks away and it appears the Bulls are going to stand pat once again, hoping that if they can turn things around next year with this group of safe, low-ceiling players, they can once again be a middle-of-the-pack Eastern Conference team.

Of course I was dead wrong about the Bulls standing pat, but we’ll get to that in our final installment of the Bulls season in review.

Hold on there, don’t forget about Part 1 and Part 2 of CSR’s Bulls Season In Review.

Dec. 26 - The firing of Scott Skiles was met with mixed reaction in Chicago. Once again the Bulls started off slowly under Skiles, only this time they weren’t showing signs of turning it around. He was also reluctant to play youngsters Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, and while both players showed a lack of maturity at times this season, they are both also top 10 draft picks and an important part of the Bulls future.

At the same time, it’s hard to blame Skiles for Ben Wallace and Kirk Hinrich’s disappointing seasons or Luol Deng’s injury problems. Skiles had shown in the past that his teams could rebound from poor starts and he was undoubtedly the best coach for this team this year (as Jim Boylan would later show).

Charlie Danoff wasn’t thrilled with Skiles’ dismissal, as many experts were arguing that the Bulls players had ‘tuned out’ their coach. In a prophetic statement, Danoff argued this would end badly for Chicago:

The team is flawed. They have been, despite their success over the past few seasons. A small backcourt with no inside scoring is a bad model in any basketball textbook.

Despite all that, Scott Skiles figured out a way to make it work with what he had. They were struggling this year, but that was nothing new for this group. They figured it out in the past, turned things around, and were stronger because of it.

They had faith in each other in past years when things started poorly, and were rewarded once they hit their groove. They trusted each other and played better. Respect is built when teammates stick together through the lowest of times - it is shattered when a leader gets stabbed in the back in the middle of a mild storm that the ship’s owner does not have the stomach to endure.

Now, that trust will never come back. Paxson chose to put the blame squarely on Skiles, removing accountability from the players and himself. Instead of grinding with the only coach they have ever known together - and eventually realizing it’s really quite easy to make the playoffs in the East - Paxson panicked and lost the trust.

I hope this galvanizes the team and makes everything better. I doubt it will.

Dec. 30 - The Bulls would start off 2-1 under interim head coach Jim Boylan, a noted ‘player’s coach’. With their record at 11-17 the team was still in the playoff picture in the miserable Eastern Conference.

Charlie elected to put aside his feelings about the Skiles firing to profile the new coach and even let a little hope show:

At the end of the day, he seems a fine choice to be the interim head man of the Bulls. His Heathcote pedigree and championship experience are pluses, and despite the poor performance of the NBA teams he has been with, he has been working in the league over 16 years and deserved a shot.

I have no choice but to be optimistic about him turning around the Bulls, otherwise this writing gig could get really depressing.

Boylan himself better be damn excited. Even if it’s only 50 games, almost no one gets the chance to be a head coach in the NBA. It is an amazing opportunity for him - lets just hope he wins a few more games than he did in his previous head-coaching gigs.

Jan. 8 - Possibly the most interesting year for any of the Bulls was that of Ben Gordon. The third overall pick in the 2004 Draft turned down a big contract extension before the season and then proceeded to show he’s not yet a complete enough player to be a starter for a championship-caliber team. Oops.

Gordon still had a nice season, averaging a team-high 18.6 ppg. On Dec. 28 he scored 19 points in the fourth quarter of the Bulls 103-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, causing Michael Redd to drop the ‘Mr. Fourth Quarter’ nickname of Gordon. Charlie Danoff decided to look at the numbers and see if the nickname is appropriate:

So, then - is Gordon deserving of the nickname or not? Certainly it seemed appropriate in his first two seasons, but not as much in his third. So far this season he has largely lived up to the lofty title, especially since he has resumed his - dare I say - proper role of sixth man. If the Bulls are to have any hope of making this year’s postseason dance, Gordon will have to find a way to continue to elevate his clutch performance.

A good start would be getting more of those points they give away for “free.”

Jan. 11 - A win against the Philadelphia 76ers tonight puts the Bulls at 14-20, the closest they will get the .500 the rest of the season. You will begin to notice a trend in CSR’s stories, as for the next month or so we will implore the Bulls to begin making trades. After all, the firing of Scott Skiles was essentially the waving of a white flag, right?

So, what’s to do? Trade everyone, save: Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah. Aaron Gray and Duhon can stay, because they barely make anything and are worth more than their salaries. Gordon could stay, though he is less of a priority than the first three.

Everyone else? Dump ‘em. Move them right now. Maybe a Ben Wallace trade to the LA Lakers for Kwame Brown’s expiring contract? How about Hinrich to the Heat for Jason Williams and Ricky Davis? Both of their deals come off the cap next year.

I realize moving players Paxson has put so much faith and effort into will be difficult. The hardest thing for anyone to do is admit they have made the wrong choices in the past, and realize it is time to cut their losses and move in a different direction.

The only thing harder is continuing down that wrong path.

Of course the big trade would come, but you have to come back next week for the conclusion of our Bulls review. Until then, try to enjoy the NBA Playoffs Bulls fans.

In case you missed it, here’s part 1 of the Bulls season in review.

Dec. 8 - After a big 98-91 win over the Pistons - the Bulls second defeat of Detroit this season - Chicago has won four of five games. Joakim Noah plays well, scoring 11 points in just 16 minutes, prompting Charlie Danoff to write a column on the Bulls rookie center:

Along with developing his aesthetic tastes, Noah played some ball, and continued upon returning to NYC, as a “5-11 point guard … he played at Poly Prep in Brooklyn for his first three years of high school, growing to 6-2 as a sophomore, 6-5 as a junior, and 6-10 as a senior.”

Yes, you read that correctly - the Bulls’ 7-foot rookie center was a point guard heading into high school.

As the draft express profile points out, this likely means that Noah has not really begun to tap into his potential. Consider that he’s only been playing center for 4 or 5 years; normal big men in the NBA - think Samuel Dalembert, Tyson Chandler, etc. - usually take at least 3-4 years in the NBA to become an effective center, after playing it their whole lives.

But there are a couple of big differences between Noah and those other two players. For one, he is not as athletically gifted as either. Secondly, he played point guard in high school, and neither Dalembert nor Chandler seem to be even remotely capable of dribbling a basketball down the floor in an empty gym.

At this time Noah wasn’t getting much playing time under Scott Skiles. He would, after a certain coaching change and a certain trade we haven’t yet got to, become the Bulls starting center. In nine April games, Noah averaged 31.4 minutes, 10.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.

Dec. 12 - The Bulls lost at home to the Boston 92-81 and beat up a young Seattle team 123-96. This one-win, one-loss pattern would be repeated many times over the remainder of the season. In fact, the Bulls would only win two games in a row five times during the 2007-08 season, and they did not have a winning streak of three games or more the entire season.

Anyway, on to the next story. This time, Charlie does his best Sam Smith impersonation and plays NBA GM for a day. His first trade sends Chris Duhon, Aaron Gray and a second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for 23-year-old center Zaza Pachulia:

Adding Pachulia to the rotation addresses the biggest flaw of the current roster: inside scoring. Pachulia is not the most well-rounded player, but he does score. He has averaged 12 PPG over the past two years, and made over 52% of his shots in the immediate basket area last season.

As most fans and media members have already said, if the Bulls had inside scoring it would dramatically alter the team’s current offense. An inside threat would open things up for Hinrich, Gordon and Deng on the outside. Futhermore, having defenders forced to guard Zaza, as opposed to freelancing off the current big men, would open up driving lanes for the aforementioned three to get to the hoop.

Trade number two was a bigger deal, with the Kings sending Mike Bibby to the Bulls for Ben Gordon, Joe Smith, Victor Khryapa and a lottery protected first-round pick:

It is a good thing the Bulls are in the East. Sitting at 7-12, they are very much still alive in the playoff hunt, while the Kings, at 8-12 in the West, are basically in rebuilding mode. Given that, this trade works quite well for them going forward.

There have been rumors that Sacramento has wanted to trade Bibby for a while now, with the most likely trading partner being the Miami Heat. Given that the Heat’s best offer revolves around Jason Williams’ expiring contract, it would be easy for the Bulls to offer a more attractive deal.

Oddly enough, Bibby would be sent to the Hawks at the trade deadline for Anthony Johnson, Tyronn Lue, Shelden Williams, Lorenzen Wright and a 2008 second round draft pick. The Bulls, of course, would later make another - and arguably bigger - trade.

Dec. 18 - More of the same. The Bulls lose this night at home against the Los Angeles Lakers 103-91 and fall to 8-14. The good news is Luol Deng has a couple of very impressive games, scoring 29 points a grabbing 10 rebounds in a victory over the Knicks 12/14 and putting up 26 points and 7 rebounds in the Lakers’ loss. Charlie decides to look at the numbers and decide just how good Deng is:

Using Dean Oliver’s “Approximate Value” formula and John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating, we can investigate Deng’s effectiveness at a deeper level. These numbers are not perfect, but they are currently the best versions of a single number to indicate the value of a player.

Over the first three years, Deng’s average AV has been 9.45 - indicating an “average regular or a good sixth man.” His average PER has been 16.29, which usually equates to a “third Banana” on a top-flight team. Obviously, those numbers are relatively disappointing. But they may not be appropriate, given how much better Deng played last season than in his first two years.

At age 21, Deng’s AV was 12.3, putting him in the “All-Star Candidate” category, while his PER of 18.8 made him a “Solid Second Option.” That’s more like it - still not superstar numbers, but Deng has not played like a superstar to this point in his career, so that’s not surprising. These ratings hint that Deng has not yet reached his potential, but at least they suggest that becoming a perennial All-Star is not out of the question.

Dec. 21 - The Bulls are about to go on a three-game losing streak that will drop their record to 9-17. In what will turn out to be excellent timing, Charlie Danoff recaps Scott Skiles basketball career. Consider it an eulogy of sorts:

What you see is what you get with Skiles. He will hold his players accountable, but that is only because he also holds himself to a higher standard, and will work harder than anyone. If you are willing to work, and actually want to improve, Scott Skiles is the coach for you. If you want to be lazy and fall back on talent and potential, it might not work - sorry Eddy.

All of this is well established. But Skiles’ only Championship came in high school, and that was a long time ago. Through hard work as a player and coach he has earned the respect of his peers - for his dedication, and knowledge of the game. The question now is - can he take the next step?

Taking a step back, being less hands-on and giving his players more responsibility is a move in the right direction. Just ask Ben Gordon:

“I think one thing I’ve seen from coach since I’ve been here, the first couple of years he was definitely on guys, because we were young and we kind of needed that. Now, he gives us a lot of freedom and with freedom comes a lot of responsibility. So we have to go out there and do our part. So I don’t think he’s what most people perceive him to be.”

Three days later Skiles was fired as the Bulls head coach after slightly more than four years in that position. He had a 10-12 record in three postseason appearances. About a month later it was revealed Skiles was fired after he told Paxson the team needed “a new voice.”

Now that all the pre-season dreams of contending for a conference title have long since been unmercifully crushed, I thought it’d be appropriate to do a re-evaluation of the Bulls current roster. I will look at each player, taking into account their age and salary and determine their current worth TODAY. I will forget what we though about them heading into the year, because that no longer matters. This column is not about who should be traded, or what rotation should be used, it’s about honestly ranking the assets the Bulls currently possess.

The only way to move forward from this mess of a season is to accurately understand what the team currently has. To build suspense, I will go through the roster alphabetically, and rank the players as assets at the end.

Otherwise, you’d stop reading as soon as I got to Adrian Griffin. A quick note before I begin, I will not include James OnCurry or Demetris Nichols in this analysis, because they’ve only played a combined 25 minutes in the NBA.

Luol Deng
Age: 22
Salary: $3,320,338
PER: 17.58

The man who would be king.

Deng remains the most talented Bull and by far has the most potential of anyone on the roster. The biggest problem in his career so far has been injuries. He’s only played a full season once, and he’s already missed 14 games this year. Currently he’s out for at least a few more weeks with a nagging Achilles injury.

I went in depth into Luol’s talent and potential earlier this year and not much has changed since then. I won’t re-hash what I’ve already written, save to say he remains by far our best asset today and going forward. He has gotten markedly better every year until this one, and he’s still only 22.

It is up to him how far he wants to go as an NBA player. He could be a good starter, an All-Star or even a borderline All-Pro. Who you gonna be Mr. Deng?

Chris Duhon
Age: 25
Salary: $3,248,000
PER: 10.15
Assist Ratio: 35.4

Since stepping into the starting lineup as a rookie and helping lead the team to their first playoff birth in the post-MJ era, Duhon has not progressed too much as a player. That is not as bad as it might sound.

He’s an above average defender, a solid pass-first point guard (his assist ratio is among the league’s best) and an decent catch and shoot shooter. No more, no less. Sure there will be nights like last week against the Warriors when he went off for 9 assists and 34 points on 11-16 shooting, but that is far from the norm. Matt at Blog-a-Bull called it ‘the Duhon game’, a once a year occurrence when Chris hits threes like Steve Kerr. It is by far the exception and not the rule.

He’s started a lot of games for the Bulls over the years, but that’s only because they didn’t have a viable shooting guard and clearly Ben Gordon is better off the bench. He does know how to run a team as a point guard, which makes him valuable for now because he’s the only current player on the roster who can. Nevertheless, at the end of the day he is a very, very good back-up point guard, and an average-to-slightly-below-average starter.

Not a piece to build a championship nucleus around, but a valuable bench player and rotation guy on a championship team.

Ben Gordon
Age: 24
Salary: $4,881,669
PER: 15.93

Ben Gordon is like that girl who’s not hot, but really good looking. You think you have a chance to score with her, and she knows that so she uses it to control you, when really you have no shot.

In other words, he’s a tease.

Yes, he is the best scorer on the team and his fourth quarter heroics are legendary, but that is about where his value ends.

Despite only being 6-3 on a very good day, he is not a point guard, and is a complete defensive liability. For those reasons, he can never be a starter the way Allen Iverson is, despite A.I. being even shorter than Ben.

He is the ideal sixth man. This year he averages 6 more PPG and shoots 14% better from three coming off the bench than starting.

He should not be the primary scorer on his team, rather someone to provide instant offense off the bench, and penalize defenders for focusing on his teammates. With Thabo’s emergence and his high salary demands, it looks more likely by the day that he will no longer be a Bull after this season. He is simply not worth the $50 million he turned down at the beginning of this season.

Aaron Gray
Age: 23
Salary: $427,163
PER: 13.79

It’s tough to draw too many conclusions on Aaron, given he’s only played 320 minutes thus far. One thing that can definitely be said, however, is that he was a steal as the 49th overall pick of the 2007 draft.

In the time he has been on the court, he’s shot well (FG%: 51.8) and has clearly established himself as the Bulls best offensive post player … not that he has much competition.

While his defense still leaves something to be desired, he rebounds well (9.5 per 40 minutes) and he changes the entire Bulls offensive attack when he’s on the floor. “Big Sexy”, as Kendall Gill calls him, allows the Bulls to have an inside-outside attack which is extremely important for them, given that 67% of their shots are jumpers.

He remains largely an unknown, but seems to have already proven he can last in the NBA for a while as a serviceable back-up big man, at the least.

Adrian Griffin
Age: 33
Salary: $1,593,000
PER: 9.16

Griffin is a good “veteran” and nice “chemistry” piece, I guess. He can’t do much anymore, not that he ever could, and the less he plays for the Bulls before he retires, the better.

I will say this for Griff. In the ‘06 playoffs, he started for the Mavericks and they made it to the NBA Finals. In the ‘07 playoffs, the Mavericks lost in the first round in the biggest upset in NBA history.

Kirk Hinrich
Age: 27
Salary: $11,250,000
PER: 13.18

Like Deng, I’ve already done an extensive piece on Kirk this year and, thankfully, he’s played a lot better since that story was written.

Despite his improvement, statistically, this season remains the worst of his career. His PER, eFG%, and AST% are all the lower than even his rookie year.

I divide Kirk’s performance thus far in the ‘07-’08 year into B.S. and A.T. That is, the 34 games Before Sefolosha started, and the 9 After Thabo was a starter. I present the following table to illustrate my point:

	FG%	3P%	FTA	PTS
BS	38.43%	23.76%	1.9	11.3
AT	43.39%	44.08%	2.4	19.2
% Change	12.91%	85.48%	28.61%	69.27%

I will admit, I got this idea partially from a Sam Smith article, though as usual Sam borrows my ideas weeks after I suggest them. But that’s really neither here nor there.

The good news is that given his exorbitant salary, Hinrich is starting to return to normal. The bad news is that this year’s stunted growth at age 27 probably means he’ll never be the All-Star many thought he could one day develop into.

His defense and shooting make him a solid starter, but that’s problematic, because he flat out cannot run a team. Since he’s really not a point guard, he’d be better off playing the two, but he’s not a good enough scorer to justify starting him at that spot at 6-3.

So what to do? For the time being, playing with Thabo who is a combo guard himself seems to be working. Long-term, Hinrich isn’t worth his salary, even though it does go down every year from here. His salary is still too high to trade, so Chicago is probably stuck with Captain Kirk.

Ideally, like Ben, he is a combo guard off the bench, bringing a different set of tools to the table. Unlike Ben, because he plays defense, he can be a good starter in the NBA. Is he a point guard on a championship team? … No.

Joakim Noah
Age: 22
Salary: $2,135,400
PER: 15.51

Like Gray, as a rookie who hasn’t played a ton of minutes it’s hard to get a firm handle on his abilities. Like Gray as well, though, he has shown he was an excellent pick at the spot by GM John Paxson. Though he no longer leads all rookies in PER, as he did earlier this year, he continues to improve.

I may end up eating these words, but I’d take Noah over all the players drafted ahead of him, save Conley, Durant and Oden. Yes, that includes his college teammate Al Horford.

Defensively, he’s better than Horford and will continue to be. He’ll never be the post-presence Al is, but his inside game is improving nightly. He’s a better passer, and you have to remember, the guy was a guard in high school. He has only begun to scratch the surface of his potential in the truest sense of the clichè.

When he’s on the court with Wallace, he allows the “Body” to slide over to the power forward position, where he’s more comfortable. On the defensive side of the court, they form a poor man’s version of Wallace and Rasheed Wallace back in the Detroit heyday.

Aside from being the team leader in +/-, the biggest thing Joakim brings to the table today is his energy and passion. Anybody watching a game has to notice he is the Bulls leader by far in those two qualities. What he’ll bring to the table tomorrow is a mystery, and that’s why he’s so valuable.

Andres Nocioni
Age: 28
Salary: $8,500,000
PER: 14.57

Noce has been the second most consistent Bull this year, behind Joe Smith. He is the only one who’s been here since the playoff run started, whose performance whose hasn’t fallen off the cliff this year. His PPG are the highest of his career.

He has justified the substantial raise Paxson gave him in the off-season, and proven to be someone worth keeping around going forward.

It would really not be too much of a stretch to call him the heart of the team.

He plays hard every night, and while he will have some games where he goes 1-11, there are many more nights where he’ll be 8-15 with 28 points like Tuesday against New Orleans.

He can play defense, rebound, shoot, pass and hustle like the well-rounded Argentine gold medalist he is. He can definitely hold his own as a starter, but on a perfect team he’ll be the crazy guy coming off the bench; in a similar, but less crazy role as fellow countryman Manu Ginobili.

Thabo Sefolosha
Age: 23
Salary: $1,805,160
PER: 10.11

Anyone following the Bulls is aware of Thabo’s emergence over the past month. He has legitimized himself as an NBA starter. He contributes all over the court. For February, he is averaging: 1.0 steals, 1.0 blocks, 6.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 13.2 points.

Don’t forget he’s an excellent defender and can serve as a back-up point guard, too.

He still can’t really shoot. His field goal percentage for the year is 38.9% and it’s even worse from three at 27.7%, but he seems to realize this. During the fourth quarter against the Hornets, he scored eight points on four layups.

At worst Thabo is a serviceable starter, at best he’s Doug Christie, minus the annoying wife.

Joe Smith
Age: 32
Salary: $5,205,000
PER: 17.58

Smith takes the award as the most reliable Bull so far in the ‘07-’08 season. He’s averaged 11 PPG and 5.2 RPG, and made mid-range jump shots like it’s his job. Given it’s pretty much the whole roster’s job to do that, it’s easy to see why he’s been so valuable.

Making roughly $5 million this year and the next, Smith has already proven an excellent ‘07 off-season addition, regardless of what he does from here on out. His PER is actually the highest of his career.

At 32, he’s not going to improve, but he also won’t decline too much before his run with the Bulls is over. Whether he stays or is used as trade bait, he is an excellent asset to have on one’s roster.

Tyrus Thomas
Age: 21
Salary: $3,505,320
PER: 14.19

What to make of this guy? Is he the kid who was so impressive at LSU, that no one batted an eye at when Paxson traded LaMarcus Aldridge for him? Or, is he the guy who despite being a top four pick can’t get off the bench in his second year?

He is clearly a sensitive kid, and has not responded well since being benched Nov. 8 in Scott Skiles’ first attempt to inject life into his team. It was only two games before that, where he had 2 steals, 2 blocks, 14 rebounds and 19 points against the Detroit Pistons in the Bulls first win. He also guarded Rasheed Wallace in the fourth quarter of that game, forcing him to go 2-7 to seal the Bulls victory. Ben Wallace sat the whole fourth quarter.

A friend of mine has an interesting theory, that the Bulls nosedive really started this year when Skiles benched Thomas.

In the 38 games since the benching, he’s only averaged 3.6 rebounds and 5.2 points per game.

So, then what do we have here? A complete, cry-baby bust? Or an unpolished gem, waiting to be discovered?

To begin an answer, I’ll quote briefly from John Hollinger’s recap of his rookie year:

“As a 20-year-old rookie, Thomas had the fourth-best rate of blocks per minute in the NBA, and the best among power forwards … Now here’s the other half of the equation: Thomas also had the second-best rate of steals per minute at his position. Only Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace was ahead of him; Thomas was the top-ranked player 6-9 or taller, and the only one to crack the top 25 overall.”

The same friend has said he sees Thomas in a similar position to where Tyson Chandler was before we traded him and he went out and became awesome for someone else.

Remember, it’s only the kid’s second year, and his disappointing performance thus far has to be taken with a much larger grain of salt than those of Hinrich, Gordon and Deng. While that doesn’t mean he won’t be a bust, it means he also might be our best chance at a perennial All-Star.

Despite what many may say, the jury is still out with regards to who won the Aldridge-Thomas trade … I mean, the Bulls also got Khryapa out of the deal!

Ben Wallace
Age: 33
Salary: Ignorance is Bliss … Trust Me
PER: 12.36

Going again to Matt from Blog-a-Bull, “He’s simply addition by subtraction at this point.” That’s it.

Asset Rank:

1 - Tyrus Thomas - Younger than Deng, extension not coming up, and while Deng has proved he cannot be the best, or second best player on a top team, Tyrus still has that chance.

2 - Luol Deng - Our best current player, hurt by contract status and injury woes.

3 - Joakim Noah - Like the two above, future is very unknown, but already proven he belongs in the NBA, and could one-day win the Defensive Player of the Year Award. I mean, Ben Wallace did … four times.

4 - Andres Nocioni - Above-average player, paid appropriately.

5 - Kirk Hinrich - Above-average player, paid inappropriately.

6 - Ben Gordon - Bulls’ best scorer, also hurt by uncertain contract status.

7 - Thabo Sefolosha - Gaining very, very quickly with each game.

8 - Joe Smith - Mr. Consistent, paid commensurate with what he brings to the court.

9 - Aaron Gray - Realistically could be an NBA starter. I mean, Mikki Moore and Mark Blount have started whole seasons for teams.

10 - Chris Duhon - Tough to put him this low, but below Gray because he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and Gray is only making the minimum.

11 - Adrian Griffin - It’s Adrian Griffin.

…

100 - Ben Wallace

Notes:

* All salary data came from the “salary” section of HoopsHype.com, linked below:

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/chicago.htm

* All statistics for this page came from 82games.com, Basketball-Reference.com and Knickerblogger.net. The glossaries for the second two sites are linked below:

http://www.knickerblogger.net/index.php/2007/10/29/a-laymans-guide-to-advanced-nba-statistics/

http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html

Following Jim Boylan’s coaching debut and Ben Gordon’s superhuman fourth-quarter effort to secure the victory, Michael Redd summed up the performance - “Mr. Fourth Quarter did a great job tonight making plays.”

Last Thursday I attended the Bulls vs. Blazers game and got a chance to watch “Mr. Fourth Quarter” in action as the Bulls battled the Blazers into double OT. Big shot after big shot fell for Gordon - until his final attempt.

Guarded by Brandon Roy, Gordon made a quick move then went up for the shot. Roy put his arms up for the block, but did not touch the ball. Some sort of strange magic was afoot, as the ball drifted out of Gordon’s hands just as he elevated. Next thing I knew, Gordon had fouled Jarret Jack on the opposing end and the Bulls had lost.

The detective in me got his interest piqued following the debacle, and I decided to do a thorough investigation of Gordon’s career to see if he deserved the noble title Mr. Redd had given him. Starting with 2004-05, when he was the first-ever rookie to win the Sixth Man of the Year Award, I sorted through the details to uncover the truth.

Despite being the third overall pick in the draft, Gordon started only three games as a rookie, coming off the bench behind fellow rookie (pick #37) Chris Duhon and Kirk Hinrich. Many rookie lottery picks would sulk if they lost their starting spot to a second rounder - Gordon, on the other hand, took the high road, apparently understanding that the decision was made to give the Bulls the best chance to win.

Overall, his first year numbers were nothing earth-shattering: 15.1 PPG, 2 APG and 2.7 RPG. What was special was his uncanny ability to have victory-saving fourth quarters.

To prove my claim, I turned, as usual, to mathematics’ least-refined and most-exploited school: statistics. I began by looking for splits by quarter, to see how Gordon’s numbers compared across each 15-minute segment. For some cruel reason, stats by quarter are not regularly kept.

The best proxy I could find was on 82games.com, in their Clutch Statistics section. Clutch is defined as, “in the 4^th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points.” These precious moments are when the game’s result is still dangerously undefined. Players that find a way to excel in these moments end up immortalized in the minds of fans.

There is no live NBA spectator experience more brag-worthy than watching a ball fly through the air as the clock expires, not even touching the netting as it floats back to earth, with the shooter’s team winning by one.

If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who saw a last-second Jordan shot. Pay attention as a fire lights up in their pupils and they become exceedingly animated, most likely personally re-enacting the shot as they tell their tale.

Since Elvis left the United Center, the Bulls have been hard pressed to find guys to fill the role of preeminent, ballsy late game performer. Elton Brand? For whatever reason, big men rarely are the ones to score game winning baskets (see Tim Duncan & Shaq). Ron Mercer? Uh, next. Jalen Rose? Maybe, MAYBE, at Michigan… Unfortunately, Chris Webber somewhat denied him the chance to really prove himself. As a pro all he proved to be was an overpaid prima donna, not someone to make a big basket.

Gordon changed all that. The main reason he won the Sixth Man award was his consistent virtuoso, late-game performances. In the table below, you can see Gordon’s per-40 minute numbers over four quarters of play and in the clutch. Comparing based on his per-40 numbers, as opposed to averages, allows for a better understanding of whether Gordon played differently with the game on the line. To say he averaged 20 PPG and 2.0 in the last five minutes is not quite as helpful.

Year	Category	FGM	FGA	FG%	eFG%	Ast’d	Blk’d	FTM	Pts
2004-05	4 Quarters	8.7	21.1	41%	48%	48%	5%	4.6	24.8
2005-06	4 Quarters	7.9	18.6	42%	49%	48%	6%	3.5	21.8
2006-07	4 Quarters	9.0	19.8	46%	51%	45%	4%	5.6	25.9
2007-08	4 Quarters	7.7	18.8	41%	46%	54%	5%	4.0	21.1
Average	4 Quarters	8.3	19.6	42%	49%	49%	5%	4.4	23.4

Over the course of his rookie season, Gordon shot a very respectable 48% - but in the Clutch moments, he had a Reggie Miller-esque 58% eFG%. Even if you just wanted to look at his regular FG% of 48%, it is crazy to think that, with the game on the line and the entire opposing team keying on him, this diminutive rookie shooting guard made nearly 50% of his attempts.

In addition to shooting better, Gordon also shot more often in the clutch, scored roughly 10 more points per 40 minutes, and made about twice as many free throws. For his first year, anyway, I think it is safe to say Gordon was about as cool as a cucumber when the pressure was at its highest.

The following season, Gordon’s average minutes (24 to 31), points (15 to 17) and assists (2 to 3) all rose as he moved primarily into a starting role. In addition, Gordon also took on additional responsibilities his sophomore season. He was required to put in more effort on defense - though he was still weak - and spell Hinrich at point guard from time to time.

Though becoming a more complete player must have drained his energy, Gordon saved enough to still be markedly better in the clutch. His per-40 numbers in the last five minutes were still ten-plus points greater than his four-quarter scoring. Compared to the year before, his clutch shooting percentages and free throws made dipped slightly; but he still managed to score more, because he took more shots.

The next season, Gordon’s four-quarter numbers continued to steadily climb. For the first time, his eFG% over the course of a game was above 50%. He also shot more, and thanks to the increase in his percentage of makes, his scoring numbers went up as well. While his overall numbers were better, the last five minutes of a close game were a different story.

The 2006-07 clutch was the first time in his career that Gordon performed markedly worse than he did over the rest of the game. Whether it was the case of a year-late sophomore slump, defenses catching up to him, or overall fatigue trying to live up to his increased expectations, Gordon’s eFG% in the clutch was more than 10% worse than regular. He made a paltry 36% of his attempts.

Hard to say he was Mr. Fourth Quarter in his third season.

Even with all the bricks he was throwing up, Gordon’s scoring in the clutch still went up relative to the year before. Part of the increase can be attributed to shooting more, but the biggest reason was a significant increase in the number of free throws he made - from 6.5 to 14.7.

This is an aspect of the game where Gordon is strangely deficient. It is not that he has problems making the free throws he takes - an 85% career free throw percentage is actually quite impressive. The problem Gordon has is actually getting to the line in the first place.

Free throws are (or should be) the easiest way to score points in basketball. I mean, they are called free throws for a reason. For big-time scorers, in times where your shot is not falling, aggressively taking the ball to the hoop to draw fouls is a sure-fire way to make sure you still get your points.

Gordon, however, seems to ignore this - he takes almost all of his shots from the perimeter. In other words, Gordon scores a lot, but does it in the most difficult way possible. Is it easier to make a 3-foot bank shot, or a fade away three-pointer over a taller defender, as he recently did against Orlando?

At least Gordon seems to have recognized that he needed to improve this aspect of his game. Once again in 07-08, his clutch numbers have seen an increase in FTM; and, consequently, his overall points. His clutch eFG% has also returned to his previous level, at 52%.

Anyone who has been watching the Bulls over the past couple of weeks would definitely have to say Gordon’s fourth quarter magic has returned since he returned to his sixth man role. For the year, he is scoring nearly twice as many points in the clutch (per-40) as he does in regulation.

When he needs to score with the game on the line, he gets to the line. But over the rest of the contest, he chooses to make life difficult for himself. Over four quarters, he only makes about four free throws per game! This year it is particularly annoying, as he is shooting over 92% from the line.

Maybe he just doesn’t like the rough play that follows from attacking the hoop looking to draw a foul. Maybe he cannot stand the smell of NBA big men. Whatever it is, compared to the NBA’s best short 2-guard, Allen Iverson, who makes almost eight free throws per game (twice as many as Ben), Gordon has a lot of work to do.

So, then - is Gordon deserving of the nickname or not? Certainly it seemed appropriate in his first two seasons, but not as much in his third. So far this season he has largely lived up to the lofty title, especially since he has resumed his - dare I say - proper role of sixth man. If the Bulls are to have any hope of making this year’s postseason dance, Gordon will have to find a way to continue to elevate his clutch performance.

A good start would be getting more of those points they give away for “free.”